Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Classical-Biblical Syntheses

Geoffrey of Monmouth is a fictional historian and also a contributor to the literary tradition about Troy because Geoffrey's History does for the British what Virgil's Aeneid did for the Romans - tells them that they are descended from the Trojans!

Biblical-Classical synthesis began when Christ displaced the Olympians to become the single god of the Roman state and the Bishop of Rome became the PontifexMaximus, the chief priest of the Roman state religion. Dante has Virgil in the Inferno and both Classical and Biblical scenes depicted in Purgatory. The first science fiction novel, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, is sub-titled TheModern Prometheus (Classical) and begins with a quotation from ParadiseLost (Biblical).

In Poul Anderson's Technic History, Manuel Argos declares that his Terran Empire, like the Roman Empire, will admit aliens to citizenship. Later, one of those aliens converts to Jerusalem Catholicism and seeks evidence for a Universal Incarnation. Thus, Classical and Biblical traditions transcend the Solar System and humanity.